Cats on Film
October 2024
Thunderbird • 5339 SE Foster Rd. Portland
Wax Flowers
September 2024
Morse Coffee • 417 1st St. Lake Oswego
Shola lost a dear one too soon. Penelope was there to witness it. In order to cope with this difficult time and create room for the long healing process afterward, both women found creative photography a powerful tool for expressing grief, fear, loss of hope, and ultimately, resilience. Their work is presented today as a dialogue between sisters, the witness now being the viewer.
"Wax flowers," a double entendre that works as a metaphor for our show: like the wax flowers growing in Shola’s garden, so attractive and strong in their pots, actual wax will melt when too warm and break when too cold. This outer strength and appearance that we are taught to show at all times—and which masks an inner fragility—is exposed by our work. We hope our vulnerability may inspire other women to allow themselves to express painful memories, and to transcend them.
Flowers on the Wall
June 2023
Hi Books • 1211 SW Broadway, Portland
Secret Garden
October 2022
Morse Coffee • 417 1st St. Lake Oswego
Une Touche de Rose
August 2022
Starbucks • 4633 NE Fremont St. Portland
Portland-based photographer Shola Lawson presents new work from her recent trip to Paris in addition to select pieces that speak to her long-standing fixation with the color pink—one that reaches as far back as 2014, when she shot her first roll of 35mm at a church in Saint Johns, OR. The church’s lavenders and soft pinks caught her eye immediately, as did the church itself, which resonated with her upbringing as a pastor’s kid. Across the years, pink has been a consistent and comforting thread within Shola’s body of work. As local artist Mary Thomas, of Blue Moon Camera, has said: “I’ve never before met someone so involved with the color pink. That’s the first thing that stood out to me about Shola Lawson’s photographic work. Very rarely does the color occur naturally in the world, aside from flowers and sunsets, and because of this, Shola’s overwhelmingly blushy portfolio took me by surprise; she had to be creating these images quite deliberately, actively seeking out the color everywhere.”